I'm proud to release the fourth book of my Alexandrian Saga -- Warmachines of Alexandria!

Two hundred years before the Alexandrian revolution, the inventor Archimedes created unimaginable weapons to defend the city-state of Syracuse from Rome.

Now, the Alexandrians must contend with an enraged Roman Empire intent on destroying the technologically advanced upstart. While Agog takes his army of steam chariots north, Heron must investigate rumors of ancient weapons thought too destructive for the battlefield. As they speed towards conflict with the undefeated Roman Legion, the Alexandrian side must make a demanding sacrifice to survive.

ThomasKCarpenter wrote:I'm proud to release the fourth book of my Alexandrian Saga -- Warmachines of Alexandria!

Two hundred years before the Alexandrian revolution, the inventor Archimedes created unimaginable weapons to defend the city-state of Syracuse from Rome.

Now, the Alexandrians must contend with an enraged Roman Empire intent on destroying the technologically advanced upstart. While Agog takes his army of steam chariots north, Heron must investigate rumors of ancient weapons thought too destructive for the battlefield. As they speed towards conflict with the undefeated Roman Legion, the Alexandrian side must make a demanding sacrifice to survive.

ThomasKCarpenter wrote:I'm proud to release the fourth book of my Alexandrian Saga -- Warmachines of Alexandria!

Two hundred years before the Alexandrian revolution, the inventor Archimedes created unimaginable weapons to defend the city-state of Syracuse from Rome.

Now, the Alexandrians must contend with an enraged Roman Empire intent on destroying the technologically advanced upstart. While Agog takes his army of steam chariots north, Heron must investigate rumors of ancient weapons thought too destructive for the battlefield. As they speed towards conflict with the undefeated Roman Legion, the Alexandrian side must make a demanding sacrifice to survive.

I wanted to concur with the others, nice cover, very striking. I've been searching for cover artists and its not easy. Still debating whether to go more trad fantasy or more modern. Your pitch sounds great as well. I'm looking forward to reading the first in this series!

LDWriter2 wrote:Okay, got another story set up at Smashwords. This one is seven fantasy stories with one flash bonus.Took me long enough. I kept having the problems I thought I would have with the first set but it's now up. I think it looks better inside than the SF set so I will redo that one later in the week

Of course outside is another matter. I used a picture I took. I tried various colors for the lettering but white was the best even though not great. I should have made the lettering larger but I was having many problems with GIMP and decided to leave well enough alone. I may retry this weekend.

I had a booksigning/sale this weekend. Just a one-day thing I set up in a food court/mall. I was there for 7 hours and my handful of sales all took place within about 15-20 minutes in the middle of the day. The rest of the day was long and disappointing. But it was kind of a ghost town and raining all day, and most times I see someone signing books in a store they look pretty bored and lonely (so I generally go talk to them), so all in all I don't feel too bad. Anything is encouraging.

I am, perhaps foolishly, very proud of this work. They do say that pride goes before a fall, but I right now I am just so pleased to have it finished and out there at last! It has been twice approved for the Smashwords Premium Catalog, but I am very keen on tweaking until it's exactly right, so currently it's pending review again. Launch date is 25th November, but 20% can already be downloaded free, so if anyone feels like taking a look at it I've included the link here http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/366676.

If you love that old detective genre classic the English country house murder, well here's a new twist for you! Naïve young private investigator Toby Le Tocq is soon all at sea in more ways than one when he takes a casual interest in a two hundred year old case. Locals are strangely divided. Some want to drive him away, whilst two beautiful and aristocratic women compete for his affections. But is it really just blind luck? In the blood of the two rivals flows an ancient power of sorcery. When Toby falls for the younger witch he is enmeshed in a web of intrigue, crime and revenge. Behind it all is the battle for control of a vast demonic power. If the girl he loves is to be saved from death, Toby faces not just a struggle to understand the occult but an ancient battle for supremacy that somehow he cannot help believing he has fought before. And unknown to Toby, both sides have picked him to play a leading role in the latest round!

Ishmael wrote:If you love that old detective genre classic the English country house murder, well here's a new twist for you! Naïve young private investigator Toby Le Tocq is soon all at sea in more ways than one when he takes a casual interest in a two hundred year old case. Locals are strangely divided. Some want to drive him away, whilst two beautiful and aristocratic women compete for his affections. But is it really just blind luck? In the blood of the two rivals flows an ancient power of sorcery. When Toby falls for the younger witch he is enmeshed in a web of intrigue, crime and revenge. Behind it all is the battle for control of a vast demonic power. If the girl he loves is to be saved from death, Toby faces not just a struggle to understand the occult but an ancient battle for supremacy that somehow he cannot help believing he has fought before. And unknown to Toby, both sides have picked him to play a leading role in the latest round!

Well, we have now made the Premium Catalog for the third time! I am doing my best to sit on my hands and leave the thing alone now that it has started to ship to online bookstores. By the way, may I take the opportunity to thank all those who helped me with the cover. You will see that I had one further inspiration whilst walking the dog and decided to include the sailboat that the seagull is alleged to have messed with! (Yes, 'with', not 'on'.)

With 9 days to go until the publication date, downloads of the 20% free sample stand at 26. Does anyone out there know any standard with which this figure may be compared? I have no real idea whether the book is doing well or badly or somewhere in between.

Ishmael wrote:With 9 days to go until the publication date, downloads of the 20% free sample stand at 26. Does anyone out there know any standard with which this figure may be compared? I have no real idea whether the book is doing well or badly or somewhere in between.

I rarely get any sales from Smashwords (I'm assuming that's where you talking about the free sample downloads) and my novels and stories have been downloaded there in the thousands. For me, Smashwords is mainly to get into Sony, Apple and a few other locations. I wouldn't put too much thought into those download numbers.

And overall, though I fully understand it's hard to as I've been there myself, I wouldn't have too many expectations for a first publication. Your visibility is small and only certain types of readers will take a chance on a new writer. Certainly celebrate the publication day when it arrives, because it is a day worth celebrating, but just focus on the next book or story, because it's all about long-term growth.

ThomasKCarpenter wrote: And overall, though I fully understand it's hard to as I've been there myself, I wouldn't have too many expectations for a first publication. Your visibility is small and only certain types of readers will take a chance on a new writer. Certainly celebrate the publication day when it arrives, because it is a day worth celebrating, but just focus on the next book or story, because it's all about long-term growth.

Good luck!

Thank you for the good wishes and for the wise advice. My head knows that you're right, though my heart, of course, is still chasing rainbows.

As far as novel writing goes, I had ground to a halt in the middle of the sequel to 'Prophets' simply because I was so discouraged by the never-ending stream of rejections. Just getting the first one out there has made such a difference to my state of mind. I appreciate that I shall be lucky to make significant sales with the first book. My thinking is that with a novel of over 160,000 words, the 20% free sample is already larger than a lot of the stuff that people are trying to sell. No-one will be able to say they bought a pig in a poke and it may just be that the samplers will be sufficiently engaged with the story to want to continue. (They may even tell their friends!)

The other strange thing is that I am far less concerned about making money from the book than I am that people should like it. It turns out that this is just as well, since the IRS has just (September 13th) changed its policy on the issue of ITINs to foreign non-residents and no longer accepts the proforma letter from Smashwords as proof of employment. I have notified Smashwords of this problem and I am awaiting advice on a solution. In the meantime I won't be making any money, no matter how many I sell!

However, my state of mind will be improved still further if every forumite downloads a free sample. So come on guys and gals - nothing to lose here!

I've said in a couple of different posts that my Indie Novel is stalled.

Today I thought about doing something about that but lost what I needed.

The biggest thing I need is someone to check the spelling, grammar, for typos, bad sentences etc. I had someone who said they would do it for far less than the pros who would want a couple of thousand dollars for copy editing. But I can't find the guy's E-mails. (That's not the first time that has happen lately--I have wondered of there is a gremlin program that gets rid of important E-mails. One on my computer or in my mind for there's nothing even in the trash file for around the time period I talked with the guy)

I had thought about doing a Kickstarter deal to see if I could raise the money for a copy editor and pro cover artist but I have had problems trying to do a video by myself--mostly in focusing the thing and finding the time to remember to practice.

So I may try to do Kickstarter without a video or find someone who is willing to go over a who novel for practically free. And who can do it now. I have had a coup of people who said they would go over it for one thing or another but everyone got busy-which may mean I asked the wrong people or that my book needs a whole lot more work than they expected. And even though my artistic skills do not go over to covers(I have two story set covers that show this) I might be able to figure out a nice cover on my own. I have learned a couple of things along those lines while researching this project. And even though they would not be the cover I want. I would like one that shows my MC--maybe talking to a Griffin in a ruined room, or fighting "Ghosts" with fire or in the final confrontation with the bad guy. But, as we used to say, I would be able to cope without that.

I've said in a couple of different posts that my Indie Novel is stalled.

Today I thought about doing something about that but lost what I needed.

The biggest thing I need is someone to check the spelling, grammar, for typos, bad sentences etc. I had someone who said they would do it for far less than the pros who would want a couple of thousand dollars for copy editing. But I can't find the guy's E-mails. (That's not the first time that has happen lately--I have wondered of there is a gremlin program that gets rid of important E-mails. One on my computer or in my mind for there's nothing even in the trash file for around the time period I talked with the guy)

I had thought about doing a Kickstarter deal to see if I could raise the money for a copy editor and pro cover artist but I have had problems trying to do a video by myself--mostly in focusing the thing and finding the time to remember to practice.

So I may try to do Kickstarter without a video or find someone who is willing to go over a who novel for practically free. And who can do it now. I have had a coup of people who said they would go over it for one thing or another but everyone got busy-which may mean I asked the wrong people or that my book needs a whole lot more work than they expected. And even though my artistic skills do not go over to covers(I have two story set covers that show this) I might be able to figure out a nice cover on my own. I have learned a couple of things along those lines while researching this project. And even though they would not be the cover I want. I would like one that shows my MC--maybe talking to a Griffin in a ruined room, or fighting "Ghosts" with fire or in the final confrontation with the bad guy. But, as we used to say, I would be able to cope without that.

For copyediting, you can find plenty of good editors for <$500. The same with covers. Most cover artists can make you a good one for <$300, and if you buy from the premade lists, you can get a deal at $50 or $100.

Check out Lucky Bat Books for a starter in pricing and ideas: http://www.luckybatbooks.com/. I'd look around from there, ask on the Kindle Boards (there are posts about this very subject), or ask authors whose work you respect (or whose covers you like).

As for the Kickstarter, you've got to have a built-in audience who's willing to give you money for the project to make it work. You're not going to get random people to give unless they have a reason to give already (ie - they know your work).

Thanks for the advice even though I have checked out LuckyBat. Their copy editor would charge me over 2,000 to go over my book. One of their artists would be around $520 for what I want. If I did go through Kickstarter I would go with their artist.

I checked out three other cover sites and found they were somewhat less expensive but they didn't do drawings. I may still have to go with one of them, as I said I could live with something less than what I wanted, but there's still the question of the copy editor.

I can try the Kindle boards even though I don't do Kindle so I never thought about them.

The guy I found was through a Google+ community. Funny thing about that is that I found my E-mails to Luck Bat but even though I have gone over the lists two and three times the ones to this guy have completely disappeared. Unless of course I'm just not seeing them, which is possible.